The present invention relates to an electronic cash system, and more particularly to an electronic cash system for processing a payment for an amount due with previously deposited funds.
Current cash management schemes for electronic cash systems may be generally classified into a xe2x80x9cbalance management schemexe2x80x9d which manages a balance, utilizing devices immune to tampering, on the assumption that the balance cannot be tampered with and an xe2x80x9celectronic bank note schemexe2x80x9d which assigns a face value and an identification number to electronic cash in order to manage the ID of cash issued by a center to check whether or not any bank note is double spent.
To put an electronic cash system to a practical use, it is necessary to protect the anonymity for user""s personal information and purchase information, and an open loop type distribution which enables money to be transferred among arbitrary user devices, shops, and so on.
Mondex (trade name) is an electronic money system in accordance with the balance management scheme which satisfies the requirements mentioned above and has been widely used. In Mondex, serviced user devices and shops offering articles each hold a Mondex card, and the shops are further required to be equipped with a special apparatus for reading from and writing into a Mondex card, so that electronic cash is inputted or outputted therethrough.
The security of the user of Mondex on the Internet relies on the security ensured by the Mondex card which enhances the security by always providing two cryptographic modules such that the card is utilized by switching one of the modules which ensures the security. Also, since the Mondex system does not manage trade information at all, the anonymity is held for personal information and purchase logs.
With the Mondex system, however, the shops are required to manage special apparatus and are burdened with labor and time therefor. In addition, since the Mondex system does not manage any trade information, an unauthorized use, if any, cannot be detected. Furthermore, the circulation of money cannot be managed.
The present invention has been made in view of the circumstance as mentioned above, and its object is to enable secure utilization of electronic cash, protection of personal information and are individual""s purchase information from being unnecessarily captured by respective apparatus, detection of unauthorized activities, and management of circulation of money without the need for managing a special apparatus.
The electronic cash system is characterized in that an account management apparatus includes storage means for storing information for identifying a user, and the amount of money utilized by the user based on previously deposited funds, a settlement processing apparatus includes settlement instructing means for instructing a payment institution to settle, a control apparatus includes management means for managing the information for identifying a user, and an account number in the payment institution of the user, encrypted with a public key of the settlement processing apparatus, balance change instructing means for instructing the account management apparatus to change the balance of the deposited funds of the user, stored in the storage means of the account management apparatus, based on the information for identifying a user managed by the management means, and settlement execution instructing means for instructing the settlement instructing means of the settlement processing apparatus to execute a settlement based on the account number in the payment institution managed by the management means.
In the electronic cash system, the account management apparatus stores information for identifying the user and the amount of money utilized by the user based on previously deposited funds, the settlement processing apparatus instructs the payment institution to settle, the control apparatus manages the information for identifying a user, and an account number in the payment institution of the user, encrypted with a public key of the settlement processing apparatus, instructs the account management apparatus to change the balance of the deposited funds of the user, stored therein, based on the information for identifying the user, and instructs the settlement processing apparatus to execute a settlement based on the account number in the payment institution.